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County voters pass ESPLOST

A police officer waits outside the Division of Elections office as the votes from each precinct were brought in by poll workers. Results for the pass of the vote to continue for another five years didn’t come in until after 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Liberty County voters on Tuesday passed the Educational Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax’s third resolution, with 472 voters casting ballots in favor and 209 voting against the continuation of the 1-percent sales tax.Voters came out to the polls on Tuesday for the special election to decide whether to leave the 1 percent sales tax in place for another five years. Money from the tax goes to school renovations, constructions projects and into an overall supplemental fund for the Liberty County School System. If it did not pass, the current tax would have expired and county residents would pay one cent less in sales taxes. In an earlier report, elections supervisor Ella Golden said there are 23,727 active voters in the county, but that the special elections always seem to have low turnout rates.“It’s been a typical special election,” Golden said of the low response rate and activity at the precincts throughout the day. Liberty County residents voted on the ESPLOST nearly five years ago and approved the current 1 percent that is used for school constructions and other projects around the school district.The sales tax has funded special projects in the past like the building of the Liberty County Pre-K Center, Assistant Superintendent Jason Rogers said in a previous report. “E-SPLOST funds provide an alternative source of monies that assist in bearing the majority of the burden when it comes to renovation, major maintenance projects, and new facilities,” Rogers said.